The home team travels for Washington ceremonies

The Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture, designed by David Adjaye, at dusk. Adjaye and his firm worked with Freelon Group and Davis Brody Bond. Source: Alan Karchmer/Adjaye Associates

The Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History...

A proud and euphoric contingent from the Bay Area was in Washington over the weekend for the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. Some notes from them:

In keeping with the theme of the day, “We too are America,” Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, writer, psychologist and professor emerita at UC Berkeley, was particularly moved by the comments of Rep. John Lewis ... and tickled by Stevie Wonder’s assertion that he hadn’t “seen the museum yet, but I’m going to.”

There were big reasons and small to be excited: Gibbs, who was there with her husband, cultural anthropologist James Gibbs, was thrilled to have two family members — scientist W. Montague Cobb and jazzman Billy Taylor — honored in the exhibition; and teens from Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington were thrilled, she says, when Will Smith walked past. Those dual feelings, happiness and sadness, were illustrated also by the big selfie sites: Chuck Berry’s cherry-red Cadillac convertible, the casket of the lynched teenager Emmett Till, and life-size sculptures of Serena and Venus Williams. Gibbs saw the names of many Bay Area supporters on the donor wall.

Arts supporter Cheryl Ward of KGO-TV, who was there with her husband, YBCA’s Charles Ward, says the difficulties in navigating traffic jams and long lines didn’t dim the radiance of the occasion. The Saturday night gala was “the best people-watching you could imagine. Thousands of beautiful, adorned, handsome bodies celebrating this long-overdue historic moment.”

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At opening ceremonies, Ward said, “One of the most touching moments was President Obama saying he looks forward to bringing his daughters and then, in the future, holding a tiny hand and sharing it. He then wiped away a tear.” The museum itself “tells so many stories, many of course difficult and complicated. ... It’s vast, and party nights don’t allow for intimate viewing.” The Wards will return, too.

Tenderloin activist Del Seymour attended a pre-opening event at the Washington headquarters of Twitter, hosted by the Blackbirds, a group of African American Twitter professionals. “All the talk was on the historic event,” says Seymour, “and not the future of Twitter.”

Despite — or perhaps because of — all this election strife that has dominated the news, Seymour says the biggest applause at the opening ceremonies was in response to Michelle Obama’s embrace of President George W. Bush.

The Third Annual William F. Buckley Dinner, at San Francisco City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 22, was a fundraiser for the National Review. Former Secretary of State George Shultz was honored “for his role in defeating communism.” Michael Grebe, CEO of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (its mission statement says it supports free representative government and free enterprise), was honored for “leadership in supporting liberty.”

Fortune cookies were packed with sayings of William F. Buckley, among them (from the National Review in 1964): “One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians.”

Although the election is looming, there was no mention of the T-word (Trump) from the podium.

•A person who doesn’t want credit for this — because in this age, mention of a name will result in Google identifying the name with the subject matter for all time, and that’s something to think about — has coined a name for a familiar street game: poopscotch. That’s when a pedestrian hops, skips or jumps in order to avoid stepping into a pile of specific organic matter on the sidewalk. (A related press release received last week noted that an estimated 120,000 dogs in San Francisco produce 32 million pounds of waste every year.)

•At Fort Mason Center on Friday night, Sept. 23, the opening of “Pride and Prejudice, the Musical” was greeted with grateful applause. That’s because everyone loves the story; because the songs were tuneful and hummable; because Rita Abrams’ lyrics rhymed hypothesize with philosophize, morose with comatose, and esoteric with hysteric ... and most of all, because it was 2½ hours without Donald Trump once crossing anyone’s mind. (Upon pondering it now, however ... money, ambition, women rated by beauty; dammit, he’s everywhere.)

•Bumper sticker spotted by Clark Sterling on a delivery truck in downtown Napa: “Meat is the new kale.”